Princess Pirate Birthday Cake

My niece Abby turned 4 years old! She requested a princess pirate birthday cake to match her princess pirate birthday party theme. 2 years ago I made Abby this Dora and Diego cake for a party she shared with her cousin Aaron. I’m so impressed at how far my photography has come since then!

I knew that this cake needed a tiara. I’ve made simple tiaras before and I wanted to try something a bit more complicated. I used this template I found online as a guide, but didn’t follow it exactly. I printed the template, taped it to a large round can and then taped a piece of wax paper on top of the template. I then used my clay extruder to make ropes of gum paste. I used different size ropes, loosely following the template and formed this pretty tiara. After shaping the tiara, I let it dry for about 2 days. It wasn’t completely dry at this point, but I handled it really carefully and I had no problems. Next time I think I will give it a week to really get it rock hard. Once it was “dry” I removed it from the round can and airbrushed it in this rich gold color.

The princess part of the cake was fulfilled with the edible tiara. When I think of pirates, stripes definitely come to mind. For a girly pirate, I needed to make the stripes hot pink and black. So the bottom tier was striped, but still needed something extra. So I added a cute scalloped ruffle.

For the top tier, I hand painted a gold treasure map all the way around the cake. I used gold luster dust mixed with a little vodka until it turned into a nice paint consistency. Painting the cake freehand made me really nervous, but I just went for it!

The finishing touch was loads and loads of edible fondant gold doubloons. I textured some yellow fondant with a rubber flower stamp. Then I cut out lots of round coins in 2 sizes and airbrushed them in gold to brighten them up. The kids at the party loved picking the coins off the cake. Happy Birthday Abby, can’t wait for you to turn 5!